A friend lost 15 guns out of his truck in a hotel parking lot on Orlando’s most touristy area - International Drive.

Often when I am traveling for hunting I sleep in rest areas instead of Hotel cause I feel it’s safer. At a hotel I would have to drag all my gear into my room.

These smash and grab robberies have gotten out of hand. Central Florida feels like San Francisco.

Mike

Have heard this same situation plagues Albuquerque.

We don't carry many firearms and do not leave them in the parking lots of hotels. Most of the time we camp while on the road.
Las Vegas might be getting funny about that after the no-damn-goodnik shot up the music festival, I stay in a campground near there anyway.

Wow! That is surprising. That is a very touristy area. When I lived in Tampa, FL in the late 80's to early 90's you never heard of that crap. I ranged from Vero, Orlando to Jax, Tallahassee to Ft. Myers. Was this fellow doing a gun show or just on a hunting/shooting outing?

quote:

Originally posted by Beretta682E:
A friend lost 15 guns out of his truck in a hotel parking lot on Orlando’s most touristy area - International Drive.

Often when I am traveling for hunting I sleep in rest areas instead of Hotel cause I feel it’s safer. At a hotel I would have to drag all my gear into my room.

These smash and grab robberies have gotten out of hand. Central Florida feels like San Francisco.

Mike

Who takes 15 firearms on a road trip if not going to a gun show?

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:
Who takes 15 firearms on a road trip if not going to a gun show?

Moving residences spending a night in a hotel.

Mike

When I go to the gun range I normally have 5 longs and 5 handguns. I cover everything with a moving blanket in the back of my f-150 crew cab.

Now I worry about even grabbing lunch at Publix or going to Home Depot or getting dinner after I am done shooting.

Mike

Seems like only yesterday we could leave our rifles in the gun rack with the truck unlocked + no body messed with anything. The general attitudes of these times really suck.

Spending the night in an Ohio turnpike rest area when trucking. Totally calm night. I could drive til too sleepy to go any longer. Crawl in the sleeper and be awake for hours.

This particular night I was laying there wishing for some sleep to hit when the cab started rocking.

"WTF, calm no wind" Looked out the curtain and saw knuckles and eyeballs over the edge of the door.

Grabbed my Ruger and flipped out real quick and slammed it against the glass. Fingers tips up, then gone. Flipped the spot lights on facing back along both sides of the trailer. Never saw a shadow anywhere. Fired it up and drove on down the road. Guess I really should have just fired thru the window at the eyeballs.

I can't imagine what my hearing would be like now if I had, as that was a loud barking .30 carbine blackhawk.

Thats just ONE instance of spending the night in a rest area.

Leaving anything of value in a vehicle parked at a motel is plumb damned Stupid imo.

George

I’ve slept in a lot of rest areas in my pickup and have not had a problem yet. I do stay in motels only, where I can drive up to the door for my room. All my guns and hunting gear go in the room with me.

A friend of mine did that too. When he walked out of his room with a briefcase the next morning he got jumped and had the shit kicked out of him.

quote:

Originally posted by df06:
I’ve slept in a lot of rest areas in my pickup and have not had a problem yet. I do stay in motels only, where I can drive up to the door for my room. All my guns and hunting gear go in the room with me.

quote:

Originally posted by df06:
I’ve slept in a lot of rest areas in my pickup and have not had a problem yet. I do stay in motels only, where I can drive up to the door for my room. All my guns and hunting gear go in the room with me.

I do the same. I have a lockable retrax cover for my f-150 so I can lock in some stuff.

But it really sucks unloading and loading a packed f-150 cab.

These smash and grabs are getting more brazen and I am worried they start happening in daylight hours.

Mike

They do it here in the Bronx and Brooklyn to jewelry stores in broad daylight with a sledge hammer!

Welcome to the "BLACK LIVES MATTER WORLD!

HIP

Oh whimper/ whine, Hip; that makes you a .....racist.

I'm not a racist! I just don't like people that beat up/sucker punch 90 yr. old men, rape 85 yr. old women, throw babies out of 5th floor windows push people in front of moving subway trains and steal what ever they can!
If that makes me a racist---I'm guilty as charged!

Hip

Face masks have made it much easier now. Huge mobs were knocking over department stores bashing in the glass cases of valuable and couldn’t be identified because of California mask mandates.

Hip, please excuse me; that comment was tongue in cheek; I'm on your side in that opinion. I'm sorry you missed what I was saying or I didn't say it better. Read it again with that in mind.

I believe the word I was looking for was a parody but escaped me at the time when reading your post. I should have been more clear but then parodies are supposed to be vague.

No Randy, I understood you! No Worries!

I just went on a rant because everyone seems to close their eyes to the real facts!

Hip

True that! The media makes real hay prophesizing to the sheeple.

A fairly close cousin stopped e'mailing after that Sacramento jewelry store and others were robbed by the crowds and I said: "that would be a perfect place to sit across from with a rifle and mow them down as they carried stuff out".

she said: "you don't really believe in shooting thieves, do you??" "damn right I do when they do it like that!" Too bad it's not legal to do either. A half dozen times and that bullshit would stop.

George

Somed are not immigrants!

They are an invasive species!

Hip

I know how we deal with fire ants.

George, I remember hearing on Paul Harvey years ago about the old issue from the old west concerning hanging horse thieves. One woman said it just wasn't right to hang a man for stealing a horse, to which the judge replied, "We don't hang a man for stealing a horse; we hang a man so that horses won't be stolen."

There it is Randy!!

George

During hunting season in Amarillo a few years ago, my friend had the window of his truck broken in the middle of the night. Our gear was in our rooms. They got a check book and little else. I'm sure they were hoping to find shotguns.

They were probably white, redneck, Trump supporters. If that makes me a racist, so be it.

Kinda along the same lines as a sweet story. In the 70s as I recall there was to be an Olimpic trial + the open pistols were there. This one young lady has an apartment there in Houston + one night this potential rapist broke in + found himself facing a VERY steady young woman with a match 22. Now here we go to the area of surmise; His thought process saying, "O.K. I got caught, I'll call my lawyer, etc." That was about the time that she shot him in the heart with a 3 shot cover leaf pattern. I LOVE that story. I can't verify it anymore but in reality, if it wasn't true, it oughta be!

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:
Who takes 15 firearms on a road trip if not going to a gun show?

And leaves them in a hotel parking lot, notorious targets for smash and grab thieves. Probably visible as well. Laziness costs.

Grizz

I've told this story before about a friend of mine in Houston who during the 70s CB craze was getting his stolen on a regular basis. Doug finally got fed up + bought a new one but this time before he mounted it under the dash, he brazed on treble hooks. You guessed it, the next morning when he came out the guy was still hung up under the dash.

quote:

Originally posted by NormanConquest:
I've told this story before about a friend of mine in Houston who during the 70s CB craze was getting his stolen on a regular basis. Doug finally got fed up + bought a new one but this time before he mounted it under the dash, he brazed on treble hooks. You guessed it, the next morning when he came out the guy was still hung up under the dash.

Oh + BTW for anyone interested in the aftermath; Doug went + got his Louisville slugger, beat the guy unconscience, took side cutters + snipped the hooks off flush with the skin then dumped + left him in the parking lot; then went to work. A sweet story; too bad we don't hear more like it.

Outstanding!

There are a few ways of politely notifying never-do-wells to think twice. Some of my favorites:

I posted above but reading all these posts reminded me. I and a couple friends took my pick up to hunt geese west of Minneapolis a few years back. We set out decoys in a field well before sun up. I drove my truck 5-600 yards away from the decoy set and parked on the edge of a country road and then I walked back to the decoy set.
It was still dark when I saw light around my pick up, probably a flash light. We hunted and returned to my truck a couple hours after sunrise. The drivers window had been busted out and my truck had been rifled. Our empty shotgun cases in my truck likely lured the bastards. They got a mag flash light and a cheap hunting knife.

Speaking of low-life thieves ... I remember hearing about a Vietnamese grocery store owner in Harrisburg who was burglarized like 15 years ago. Access was gained through a back wall at least 3 times. He put up a net of some fine wire there that was energized with (I think it was) 115 volts. The burglar tried again and his heart stopped dead and he died. Then his family sued the owner. They lost.

A buddy of mine who was living in Houston in the 70s told me this one. Seems that "Carter Country" (gun store) got an annonomis call on Friday night, "You are gonna be robbed" CLICK. Maybe a prank but who wants to make a bit of OT? Nothing n Friday or Saturday night but on Sunday the guy on watch heard this sound of a chisel breaking into the cinderblock wall of the gun vault. He waited bit then hit the lights + he was carrying an Ithica 10 G. 'Roadblocker'. Well the 1st guy he shot was half way through the hole coming in so he effectively blocked the passage, then took out the others. There was blood + pts. all over that room + they showed a good bit on the news. Sweet part was that HPD said that as the thieves were in the gun room, they were presumed to be armed so the shooting was justified. That's what Doug told me that he saw on the news + THE story going around all the gun stores. If not true, it oughta be.